Posted on 06/28/2002 11:08:24 AM PDT by NYer
NEW YORK (AP) _ A man who pleaded guilty to more than 100 felony counts in a horrific 1982 rampage of robbery, rape and assault in several Long Island communities was freed from prison on Friday, state officials said.
Robert Williams, 39, walked out of the Shawangunk maximum security prison in upstate Wallkill at 9:30 a.m., said Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Correctional Services. Williams, who was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison, was released because he has served two-thirds of the 30 years, complied with prison rules and razuicipated in treatment programs. Four accomplices are still in prison.
The five men from Brooklyn stole a Cadillac and drove to a home in Plainview, on Long Island, where they raped, beat and robbed guests at a party. Later, they went to a diner in Westbury, where the men robbed and terrorized customers.
The attackers made their victims strip and ordered some to have sex with each other. Two men were shot and at least one waitress was raped. ``Nothing in my career ever compared to the magnitude of this crime and the acts of pure evil,'' former detective John F. Nolan told The New York Times in Friday's editions. ``This was degradation on a scale that was barbaric.''
After Williams' conviction, Nassau County District Attorney Denis E. Dillon successfully lobbied state lawmakers to change sentencing laws, making it possible for people convicted of multiple felonies, not including murder, to be sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison instead of the 15-30 years that Williams received. ``My office continues to support legislation to remove all caps on consecutive sentences in cases such as these,'' Dillon said in a statement.
Two of Williams' accomplices, Robert Samuels and James Martin, are serving life sentences after convictions on an unrelated murder. Robert Williams' brother, Michael, has enrolled in a sex offender treatment program that could lead to his release. The fifth man convicted in the attack, Bruce Garrison, is not being released because he has not enrolled in the sex offender program.
Robert Williams' name has been added to the state sex offender registry; he is expected to move to Brooklyn, where he will live with his wife and two of his three children, state parole officials told The Times.
``He will be supervised intensively by the Targeted Offender Program, which is a special offender unit of parole officers, who work with the New York Police Department and officers in the 73rd and 75th precincts,'' said Martin Cirincione, executive director of the New York State Division of Parole.
AP-ES-06-28-02 1358EDT
"Breathing with intent to live," in the first degree.
What Thesaurus did that word come out of? It's not in my Webster's or American Heritage Dictionary either.
That was true twenty years ago, but not anymore. Nassau and Suffolk have not gone Republican in a Presidential election since 1988.
That would be profiling!
This I can never understand. If your sentenced to X years in jail, then darn garnit you should serve X years.
Smart move, I've been outta there for twelve years, spending subsequent years all over da place, including NYC. Will never return to LI, although my childhood was largely positive there.
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